Whatever your opinion of the outcome, all Americans can take pride in the example our democracy sets for the world by holding elections even in a time of war.
WTF?
Now, why on earth would you say something like that unless it was at issue? Is this what the writery folk call 'Chekhov's Gun'? There has never been a time that we have not had elections in a 'time of war' (again with the 'war' frame, even though we're not technically at war.) John Nichols writes that even during the Civil War, when Lincoln was urged by his party to suspend elections, he refused. Instead, he ran for re-election, facing strong opposition both within his own party and from a Democrat who was a decorated general.
“We cannot have free government without free elections,” he said. “If the rebellion could force us to forgo or postpone a national election, it might fairly be claimed to have already conquered and ruined us.”So what's this talk about suspending elections, if it's never been done before?
Are you threatening us, Dubya?
4 comments:
Besides the war frame, I suspect the speechwriters wanted Condi's cowboy to invoke a couple of other frames:
- We're just plain wonderful. Ain't we wonderful? Let me remind me you all how wonderful we are.
- Any example we set is a good example. We're so wonderful that anything and everything we do sets a good example.
- Do not be distracted by unpleasant realities that detract from our wonderfulness and our wonderfully good example. Those election results seem uncomfortably similar to reality-based criticism. That's really a downer, ain't it? Criticism dulls our warm fuzzy buzz and threatens our wonderful self-image.
So repeat after me, until those uncomfortable thoughts fade away: we're wonderful, we always set a good example, we're wonderful, we always ....
Good observation - and of course, the 'bad guys are after us' fear frame - 'we're just defending ourselves from the merciless, all-powerful, all-pervasive monsters relentlessly attacking us - what else could we do?'
Plus, the 'bipartisan' rhetoric - conveniently overlooking the fact that 'bipartisan', to him, means 'do it my way'...it's so disgusting that he will only do the right thing if forced to. We've seen who he is when he's unrestrained.
The Boy King is good at issuing threats. He is good at hiding behind the military, too.
Alicia,
He got cornfused! The World Series got postponed for a war, not the elections! SaLUTE.
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